WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The man accused of killing former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course will appear in court Monday after being indicted on additional charges.
Ryan Wesley Routh is expected to be arraigned in federal court in West Palm Beach on an indictment filed last week charging him with attempted murder and weapons offenses.
The second attempt on Trump’s life was thwarted when a member of his Secret Service saw Routh’s gun barrel sticking through the golf course fence just in front of where Trump was playing, authorities say. The officer shot in the direction of Routh, who sped away and was arrested in a neighboring province.
Routh did not fire any bullets and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials said. He left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with scope and a plastic bag containing food.
Prosecutors have said that months before his arrest on September 15, he wrote about his plans to kill Trump in a handwritten note, calling his actions a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offering $150,000 to anyone who would “take the case” can finish’. the job.” That note was in a box that Routh apparently delivered to the home of an unknown witness months before his arrest.
According to the case docket, the hearing will take place before a magistrate on Monday. But the further proceedings will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump and also assigned to the criminal case in which the former president was accused of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar. estate -a-Lago.
Cannon generated intense criticism for her handling of Trump’s criminal case, which she dismissed in July — a decision now under appeal by special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Routh’s arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged the shortcomings that led to that shooting but has said security worked as it should to thwart a possible attack in Florida.
Routh was initially charged only with weapons offenses in a criminal complaint, before prosecutors filed additional charges before a grand jury. Prosecutors will often quickly file the first easily provable charges they can, later adding more serious charges as the investigation progresses.
Other charges he faces include illegally possessing his gun despite multiple felony convictions, including two charges of possession of stolen property in 2002 in North Carolina. He is also accused of having a gun with a serial number that is obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, a violation of federal law.
____
Richer reported from Washington.
